tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption

CHAIN -- Steak & Shake
Owner -- The Steak and Shake Company (NYSE: SNS)
Primary Operating Region -- 20 Midwestern and Southeastern states
Number of Locations --  496 (July 2007)

Ignorance at the drive-thru.

On probably a dozen occasions, I have sat at a Steak n Shake drive-thru speaker waiting for somebody to take my order with no response whatsoever for as much as fifteen minutes before giving up and either pulling around and entering, or just leaving outright.  If I go in, the excuse is "Oh...The batteries must be dead" (on the headset that nobody was wearing in the first place).  This usually happens between 6 and 8 am.

Drive-thru mishaps aside, Steak & Shake is fantastic.  The slogans say it all..."Unimproved since 1934".  My favorite of their slogans: "In Sight, It Must Be Right".  Their slogan of choice: "Famous for Steakburgers".  How boring is THAT!

Gus Belt founded Steak & Shake in 1934 in Normal, IL. "Steak" stood for "Steakburger".  The slogan "In Sight It Must Be Right" nods to Belt's gimmick of wheeling in a barrel of T-bones, sirloins, and round steaks and grounding them into burgers right in front of the customers who ate at the counter overlooking the kitchen.  That worked well to overcome fears some people had with hamburger being less than fit for human consumption.  Hamburger was very new to the American diet, only coming into existence over the previous decade thanks to White Castle and Castle's many copycats.

Steak & Shake was a hit and expansion and franchising followed.  Curbside service was added due to inability to handle demand inside.  Belt died in 1954 and his wife Edith took over.  Expansion was halted.  Edith sold the business in 1969.  A brief expansion spurt occurred in the early 70's, then some closures.  Two other major changes happened in the 70's...Headquarters moved to Indianapolis, and curbside service was replaced by the drive-thru.

E W Kelley & Associates purchased Steak & Shake in 1981.  Kelley is credited with revitalizing the chain. The company operated for many years as Consolidated Products and had a sister chain called Colorado Steakhouse.  In 2001, the Colorado Steakhouse restaurants were discontinued and Consolidated Products became The Steak & Shake Company.

Expansion again happened in the 90's as well as an evolution of the image.  Steak & Shake played heavily on its heritage in its marketing, while a modernization of the restaurants occurred (mostly through replacement of older buildings, including the original Normal, IL location).  The menu?  If it aint broke...

So what exactly is Steak & Shake?  It's a 24-hour burger joint with a drive-thru, except you have servers and real glass and china.  It's a shiny modern dining room in red white and black with a menu very much deserving of it's "Unimproved since 1934" slogan.  You can still sit at a counter stool and watch the grill.  Not a lot has changed there. and that's a good thing.  Everything is cooked to order.  Burgers are still made of "the finest ground beef" shaped like a puck and flattened as they are quick-seared on a hot grill.  There is a breakfast menu (that is NOT available all day) and an almost afterthought dinner menu.  You can combo your sandwich into a "platter", adding two optional sides like fries, baked beans, a small salad, cottage cheese,  coleslaw, soup, or chili.  

The chili itself is legendary and can be had in a bowl or as part of a spaghetti dish called "Chili 3-Way", a dish made popular at chili parlors in Cincinnati.  It's a chili with a texture that comes off as "canned" more than "homemade", but it's my favorite chili anywhere, and the favorite of most people I know who've tried it.  You can buy a canned chili branded "Steak & Shake" at the restaurants and in some Midwestern supermarkets, but it's not even close.  It's made by Castleberry, as we unfortunately found out during the great chili recall of 2007.

Burgers are hot and greasy in a decadent sort of way.  I actually prefer the Frisco Melt to the burgers.  The fries are shoestring thin and best smothered in liquid cheese.  Milkshakes are hand-dipped and topped with whipped cream and a cherry.   Steak n Shake has improved their shake offerings recently with the addition of some new flavors, "Side by Side" shakes, (two flavors co-poured into the glass) and "Sippable Sundaes" (shakes with sundae toppings).  Seasonal shakes include the incredible caramel apple shake for Halloween.  In a word..."Dreamy".

Steak & Shake is still highly successful with a lot of room for growth.  Most growth in recent years has been at the company level, but the company is now preparing to open up franchising opportunities.  Steak & Shake currently operates in 20 states, but the idea of a national presence has been mentioned.

If its as good now as it was in 1934, it'll still be that good when it gets to you.

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